Could they go it alone? As more and more Soviet republics move to declare independence from Moscow, both Western policy-makers and Soviet officials have begun concentrating on an issue that they never had to think about before: Would independent republics be economically and politically viable? To some, the question has an odd ring.

Politics, ordinarily remote from the daily lives of most people, has suddenly become what everyone thinks about and talks about, even eats and breathes in the Soviet Union. At the bus stops, in the queues at the grocery store, on factory floors and in the offices of the government itself, there is discussion and debate on an unprecedented scale as people learn that what happens "up there" affects the lives of those far below.

Politics, ordinarily remote from the daily lives of most people, has suddenly become what everyone thinks about and talks about, even eats and breathes in the Soviet Union. At the bus stops, in the queues at the grocery store, on factory floors and in the offices of the government itself, there is discussion and debate on an unprecedented scale as people learn that what happens "up there" affects the lives of those far below.

Concern over ethnic nationalism continues to run beneath discussions about any new government in the Soviet Union. Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin Tuesday declared that Russia would never dominate a proposed new union of Soviet republics, a concern of smaller republics. And yet, Yeltsin has sent aides to other republican capitals out of concern for minority ethnic Russians in the other areas. Here is a roundup of areas where ethnic difficulties continue: GEORGIA.

The population of the Soviet Union grew by 1% in 1986 and totaled 281.7 million by Jan. 1 this year, the official Tass news agency said Tuesday. Tass, quoting the government's Central Statistical Agency, said that 186 million people were recorded as urban dwellers and that 95.7 million live in rural areas.

Soviet Union's 287 million people consist of more than 100 officially recognized ethnic or national groups living in 15 union republics, 20 autonomous republics, eight autonomous regions and 10 autonomous areas. The Russian Federation, with about 148 million people and 76% of the land, is largest. About 60 million Soviets live outside their "home" republics, including 25 million Russians, partly because of policies to "Russify" parts of the Baltics, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

The population of the Soviet Union rose to 284.5 million at the start of 1988, an increase of 4.8 million over 1978, and the average Soviet citizen can now expect to live 69.6 years, Tass said Saturday. The official Soviet news agency, quoting data from the State committee for Statistics, said the average life expectancy had risen by almost two years but did not say over what time period. Average life expectancy for Americans is more than 71 years.

The Soviet Union, in the first official disclosure of data on illegitimate births, has reported that more than 500,000 children are born to single mothers each year in the country despite high abortion rates. "It's a huge social problem," said the weekly Semya (Family), which published the data, released by the State Statistics Committee, as part of an increasingly open attitude to adverse official statistics, many of them long suppressed. Semya said 9.

The Soviet Union announced its intention Friday to review the cases of dissidents, among them some of the country's greatest living writers, artists and musicians, who were stripped of their Soviet citizenship for their criticism of the regime.

Baba Sasha has lived most of her 82 years in a hilly lakeside village that never got big enough to merit a dot on the map. Now it never will. The last neighbor left 10 years ago, leaving Baba Sasha and her invalid son, Tolya, alone in their rickety wooden house. The rutted roads, lined with birch and yellowing winter weeds, are emptier than ever.

Could they go it alone? As more and more Soviet republics move to declare independence from Moscow, both Western policy-makers and Soviet officials have begun concentrating on an issue that they never had to think about before: Would independent republics be economically and politically viable? To some, the question has an odd ring.

Soviet Union's 287 million people consist of more than 100 officially recognized ethnic or national groups living in 15 union republics, 20 autonomous republics, eight autonomous regions and 10 autonomous areas. The Russian Federation, with about 148 million people and 76% of the land, is largest. About 60 million Soviets live outside their "home" republics, including 25 million Russians, partly because of policies to "Russify" parts of the Baltics, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

Baba Sasha has lived most of her 82 years in a hilly lakeside village that never got big enough to merit a dot on the map. Now it never will. The last neighbor left 10 years ago, leaving Baba Sasha and her invalid son, Tolya, alone in their rickety wooden house. The rutted roads, lined with birch and yellowing winter weeds, are emptier than ever.

For every 100 births in the Soviet Union, there are 106 abortions, a medical newspaper said. Soviet abortions in 1988 totaled nearly 7 million, Meditsinskaya Gazeta reported. "These monstrous statistics are difficult to believe," it said, adding that illegal abortions performed outside hospitals are not even counted in that total. The weekly Moscow News reported in January that 90% of all first pregnancies in the Soviet Union end in abortion and that hundreds of women die each year as a result.

The Soviet Union announced its intention Friday to review the cases of dissidents, among them some of the country's greatest living writers, artists and musicians, who were stripped of their Soviet citizenship for their criticism of the regime.

The story of how "Nomads" came to Los Angeles is linked to an intriguing tale about an insatiably curious world-famous physicist, his fellow bongo drum player and their 12-year quest to travel to a remote Shangri-La. Nobel laureate Richard P. Feynman, widely viewed as the world's leading theoretical physicist of his day before he died of cancer at 69 a year ago this month, was also known as an eccentric, fun-loving adventurer.

For every 100 births in the Soviet Union, there are 106 abortions, a medical newspaper said. Soviet abortions in 1988 totaled nearly 7 million, Meditsinskaya Gazeta reported. "These monstrous statistics are difficult to believe," it said, adding that illegal abortions performed outside hospitals are not even counted in that total. The weekly Moscow News reported in January that 90% of all first pregnancies in the Soviet Union end in abortion and that hundreds of women die each year as a result.

Young women wearing brightly colored head scarves, some carrying infants and others leading toddlers by the hand, are a common sight in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. Indeed, children seem to be everywhere in the narrow, curving lanes of the city's adobe-walled Old Quarter. The average family has three or four children, and some have as many as 12. "Uzbek people love children," a young mother said, with pride in her voice.

Nomads of the Eurasian steppe, the mighty Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun among them, swept across the vast plain for 3,000 years, sparing no bloodshed as they conquered countless civilizations. But there's much more to these migratory peoples than barbarianism, with which they are so often identified. "Nomads: Masters of the Eurasian Steppe," an exhibition of about 1,300 artifacts opening today at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, is likely to rectify this limiting stereotype.

The Soviet Union, in the first official disclosure of data on illegitimate births, has reported that more than 500,000 children are born to single mothers each year in the country despite high abortion rates. "It's a huge social problem," said the weekly Semya (Family), which published the data, released by the State Statistics Committee, as part of an increasingly open attitude to adverse official statistics, many of them long suppressed. Semya said 9.